Tips for Eating Japanese Food

Updated:May 15,2014

If anyone has perfected low-fat cuisine, it's the Japanese. Japanese cuisine highlights rice and vegetables and relies on food preparation methods that require little or no fat or oil. Because of this, most of the fat you eat comes directly from the food you choose. Typically, portions are smaller too.

Tips:

Ask the cook to prepare your food without high-sodium marinades, sauces and salt.

Ask that sauces be served on the side.

Avoid foods that are deep-fried, battered, breaded or fried.

Vegetable tempura (lightly battered and fried vegetables served with sauce)

Steamed vegetables

Shrimp tempura

Grilled shrimp or vegetable sushi

Tonkatsu (breaded pork cutlet)

Nabemono (casseroles); yosenabe (seafood and vegetables in broth); shabu-shabu (sliced beef and noodles cooked and served at the table with dipping sauce); sukiyaki (beef and vegetables cooked in sauce) or su udon (hot noodles and broth)